Program to create virtual folder/drive eliminating subdirectories?

[guptasa1]

Hey all,

Hope the title to this isn't too confusing as I'm having trouble explaining exactly what I want to do, but here goes my best effort, and I'm hoping there's a program out there that can do it.

I have a specialized program that can only see files in a pointable main folder/directory. IE, there are no options for subdirectories. (Also, without going into too many details, it's not a program I can really replace.)

Unfortunately, it would be bedlam to get rid of subdirectories, and the files are constantly changing, so simply copying them into one folder isn't a good option (unless it keeps the copy updated).

So, I'm wondering if there happens to be any program out there that can take a directory and all its subdirectories (multiple levels down) and make either a virtual drive or virtual folder pointing to *all* of the files at the top level (as if there were no subdirectories - just every file dumped into one huge folder, virtually).

Preferably this wouldn't actually copy the files due to space issues, but if that's the only option available, it would be acceptable.

Does this make sense? Also, thanks in advance.

 

[EagleKeeper]

use of the subst command will generate a virtual drive for a given folder.
It will not allow you to condense sub folders.

there may be a tool out there that builds on such; I doubt it though

good luck

 

[guptasa1]

Figured it was a reach, but thanks for the reply. =)

 

[mechBgon]

I think the Robocopy command would work for your purpose as long as the subdirectories aren't changing names. Let's say you want your files in C:\Main, and there's a subdirectory named C:\Main\subdirectory that has files you want moved to C:\Main as they come in.

robocopy.exe C:\Main\subdirectory C:\Main /mov /mon:1 /save:C:\NameOfThisJob

This tells it to grab the files from the subdirectory, move them to the main directory, and the /mov switch tells it to delete them from the subdirectory as it goes, so you don't have duplicates using up excess disk space. The /mon:1 tells it to repeat the procedure after every 1 new file is placed in the subdirectory. The /save bit has it save the parameters so you can just run robocopy /job:C:\NameOfThisJob next time.

You'd need one robocopy task for each subfolder, so hopefully that's a static setup. You can even add a multithreading switch, run robocopy /? for the full range of options.